Moore v. State

Chastin Moore was convicted by a jury of aggravated assault, kidnapping, aggravated sexual battery, aggravated sodomy, terroristic threats and robbery. He appeals following the denial of his motion, as amended, for new trial. Construed to support the jury’s verdict, the evidence adduced at trial showed the following: On the date of the incident, the victim in this case was headed home at about 4:00 a.m. after going out with friends for the evening. She stopped at a convenience store and while she was pumping gas, a man driving a green Chevy Tahoe,1 subsequently identified as Moore, yelled at her through his passenger side window that “he liked what he saw.” He then asked her if she wanted to get together and when she declined, offered her money. She told him she had a boyfriend and that she just wanted to go home.

The victim went inside the convenience store and paid for her gas. Moore was still there when she came out, and the victim testified that she was a little nervous he would try to follow her. However, it looked like Moore was leaving and that he was going in the opposite direction of where she was headed so the victim left the parking lot. The victim’s route home was on Highway 56 through a rural area where, at that time of the morning, there was no traffic and the road was dark. After a while, the victim noticed car lights behind her and then saw that it was the same green vehicle that she had seen at the convenience store. She first tried to call a friend, and then 911 but lost the signal before she could tell them her location. She then reached her ex-mother-in-law, with whom she was living at the time, and frantically told her that she was being followed.